The Grotto

This was one of our very favorite activities at the recent Carter Family Reunion. We hiked to a place in Payson Canyon called the Grotto. It was a cave like place where there was a waterfall . It was breathtakingly beautiful. See for yourself in the photos below:Arrival at the Grotto.
Magnificent Beauty
Julie holding Noah with Gracie and Zayah sitting on the big rock in the middle of the Grotto.
Taking a restful break from all the action of playing in the water.
Jared takes Nessa for a cool shower in the waterfall.
Wading pool.
Uncle Mike takes Brigham in the cool waterfall.
A pretty picture of Martha and Mollie.
Gracie loves the rocks just like her Daddy!

The Quilts of N.E.C.

A few times in my life, I have been very lucky and privileged to know someone who truly inspires me. My brother-in-law, Nathan, is one of those people. He is very talented, gifted really, in quilting. I always enjoy the different quilts he has worked on and I love the one he made me (I'll post that later). It was interesting to hear him talk about the quilt shop he works at as a hobby and the differences he realizes in quilt designs, fabrics and thread. He has an amazing eye for color and design. I also felt how giving he was when he mentioned that he had never sold any of his quilts or quilt tops. He has given them all away. These are heirloom quality quilts, I assure you, and this humbles me because it is very generous of him and his time. I am blown away each time I see one of his quilts for they are so beautiful.
As a young woman, I learned the process of quilting. I have made one quilt with my Grandma Rae (I'll post later) and perhaps a few pillows. It took a long time. I haven't been able to really quilt as much anymore with other demands on my time and my lack of knowledge as well. I understand this lengthy process and that's why Nathan's quilts that he gives as gifts truly inspire and humble me. Perhaps, I'll take up quilting again one day.
Thank you so much for sharing your quilts, Nathan. We love and appreciate you. Below are pictures of his quilts, unique and original made by him. (Please don't copy the photos without my express permission as I would need to get permission from the quilter as well.) Enjoy!










This first quilt (quilt block shown here) is made entirely of oriental fabrics. Nathan gave this to his sister, Martha, who served an LDS mission to Hong Kong. It was so fun because he wrapped it in Christmas wrapping paper with a note stating "Do not open until Christmas 2010." But he nicely let them open them early.










Martha and Nathan holding up the Oriental Quilt.










This next quilt is the one he gave to his sister, Katherine for Christmas 2011. It is made entirely of 1860's American Civil War reproduction fabrics since, I'm guessing here, Katherine likes to learn about culture and history and has home decor of historical items in her home.



"My inspiration is art... because without art we would just be stuck with reality."

Daniel Robert Lynch

Young American Artist

All in all, aren't they gorgeous quilts? Masterpieces, really in my eyes.

Wow, this baby can crawl!

During the family reunion (July 24-26) this year 2008, our little 9 month old baby learned to crawl. Here's a bit about this new and exciting time in his life:











This is our little boy, Noah, before he could crawl and before wearing a tye-dyed onesie.















This is his dad holding up the onesie before he made it tye-dyed for Noah.















He is now decked out in his tye-dyed shirt and starts trying to crawl. Attempt # 1 - getting all the way up in the air position.















Trying to crawl attempt # 2 - getting in the halfway up in the air position.















Trying to crawl attempt #3 - all fours on the ground firmly and final crawling position successful! I'm all smiles and ready to go! Watch out, here I come!

How Nessa made a tie-dyed shirt

We made tie-dyed shirts at our family reunion.
Here's how Nessa did it with her cousin, Alesia.












First, you take a white shirt, pre-washed and dipped in a solution of Clorox bleach water. You swirl it, twirl and fold it a special way then wrapping rubber bands all around it to hold it together.















Second, you choose your favorite dye colors and squirt them within the rubber band realms to add color and design.














After you are done squirting, you package your t-shirt into a Wal-Mart sack and tie it up. Let it sit for 6 hours and then take it out. Rinse it in cold water and set it out to air dry. We did this outside in a kiddie swimming pool.














Here is a picture of the final result. They turned out really cool and with all the Carter cousins wearing them around the country you can blame us for bringing tie-dyed T-shirts back into style. Well, even if that doesn't quite happen, we really had a lot of fun making the shirts.

Ooooh Sooooo Good - Lemon Tarts

We took a lot of photos during this process of making these mini lemon meringue pies that we've decided to call lemon tarts. Mainly because it's fun to say: "The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts."
I love to cook and my mother, Clara, taught me. It is something I really want to teach my children as well. So, we do these kind of cooking activities a lot. It's fun! My way of relaxing is to cook and I love to share my food with those I really care about. It's how I show my love to others. I enjoy it!
This first picture is of the lemons before we squeezed all the juice out of them.

















Here's little Gracie ("peep, peep") helping me squeeze the lemons with the citrus juicer that mommy bought from Pampered Chef that I actually like.














Here's Cowboy helping to stir and stir then stir again the lemon sauce made from scratch.

Zayah and Gracie helping to cut out all of the pie crusts - also made from scratch.
Finally, its a picture of Zayah, holding the finished product with the meringue and everything.
By the way, these tarts were fabulously yummy!

Oh, the good ol' days...

If you'd like, let's play a blog version of Remember When...

I think this will be fun! Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together or with my family. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

It was neat to see this on my friend, Becky's blog and I decided to play along. It was neat to get to know her a little better.

Summer Fun - Amusement Parks

My children seem to forgetting a lot of fun things that we've done this summer already so I thought I would post some of the photos I've taken throughout the summer here.
In June, a friend of mine invited my children and I to go with her to a Six Flags amusement park. We've never been mostly because of how expensive it is and also because I'm more of a nature person along with my husband. She had a bunch of coupons and so we only had to pay for food and parking.
It was a really long day but a fun experience for my children but they stayed with me well and were very well-behaved. They have never really been on any rides and they were terrified to even ride most of them. They each did dare to ride one roller coaster, a few of the water rides, and a lot of the kiddie rides if they were allowed. Hopie and Brigi were already too big for a lot of those - growing up can be a bummer. They all decided that the wave pool was there favorite thing only it was a bit too crowded. We kind of turned into lobsters with sunburn and we tried to drink a lot of Powerade to keep cool.
Also, the whole day we only saw these characters of Wonder Women and Robin. We were able to get a quick picture of at least 3 of my kids with the characters. They had been on the lookout all day for more exciting characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and we just missed Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and Daphne.
Overall, we had a great experience, did alright amongst the crowds and we were extremely tired at the end of the day. Finally, we all agreed that overall we have had just as much fun at the Zoo or swimming together. As a mother, I'm happy about that.